Supposedly William Conrad was given one of the props by Jack Warner; I read somewhere that his kids sold it after he died.

They weren't that expensive for long. We got ours in '81 for Christmas because it was much cheaper than a VCR, from Montgomery Ward, and I think it was less than $400. And although there were some expensive discs, they generally were between $19.95 and $39.95 (for the two-disc movies). This at a time when movies on…

As the format died, stores started unloading those discs cheap. An appliance store near us dropped the prices to $5 a disc at one point and we bought probably 20 movies at that price. I had every James Bond movie up through Octopussy on it. I don't think anything was ever letterboxed on there and the transfers were…

Yes, lots of places rented VideoDiscs in the '80s, and you did indeed have to flip it after about 50 minutes or so. The reason they skipped was that the stylus got dull after a lot of plays and it was not exactly simple or cheap to replace.

And much of Frankenheimer's best work was done for live television, preserved (if at all) on kinescopes that hardly anyone wants to watch. But if you've never seen "The Comedian," for instance, you're missing out. Frankenheimer + Rod Serling (and they did a lot together) + Mickey Rooney at his most terrifying.

The John Frankenheimer interviews have some of the funniest stories about live television you will ever hear.

Two complete episodes of the six survive, plus some film inserts. By the way it was made for London Weekend TV, not the BBC. ITV companies wiped stuff just as much as the BBC did, unfortunately.

Two complete episodes of the six survive, plus some film inserts. By the way it was made for London Weekend TV, not the BBC. ITV companies wiped stuff just as much as the BBC did, unfortunately.

Nope, they had a real studio audience during the taping; they only had about 1 hour to tape an episode after most of a day of camera rehearsal. The filmed bits were shot ahead of time and played into the recording live, so the audience would have seen those, too.

Nope, they had a real studio audience during the taping; they only had about 1 hour to tape an episode after most of a day of camera rehearsal. The filmed bits were shot ahead of time and played into the recording live, so the audience would have seen those, too.

Considering that Doctor Who used "Ticket to Ride" in 1965, I'd say they were a little off.

"The Andromeda Strain," with tons of corpses plus slicing dead bodies' wrists open to reveal that their blood had turned to powder, rated G.

Most of my favorites have been mentioned — but here's two moderately obscure British themes that haven't:

In the van Gulik books, Dee's about 30 in his first appearance, and most of the books take him up to only about age 45 or so. In the last book (chronologically), "Murder in Canton," he seems to be maybe 50. Also, he fights lots of people in those books, including the two men who become his assistants.